No More Glass Ceiling: New Thinking on Women in Leadership
Attention Moms, Dads and Bosses: Family Commitments Can Make for Better Managers
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Parents across the country can now hold their heads high when heading out the door to attend a teacher conference or coach a soccer game. Being a committed parent can enhance managerial ability, according to a study by the Center for Creative Leadership and Clark University.
Child-rearing develops skills that are useful at work, the study found. Being able to manage the demands of children and running a household helps people better manage the stress of work instead of adding to it. Family experiences provide managers with positive feelings that carry over to the workplace and facilitate performance. They also help managers develop the ability to see others' views - a capacity that is critical to supervising others, working in teams or relating to superiors.
The study contradicts conventional wisdom that parents are easily distracted by their responsibilities at home - in particular their children - and therefore are more likely to be ineffective at work.
The findings were published last year in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The article - "Commitment to Family Roles: Effects on Managers' Attitudes and Performance" - was co-authored by Dr. Laura Graves of Clark University, Dr. Marian Ruderman of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and Patricia Ohlott, formerly of CCL.
"Based on previous research, we were fairly confident that our study would confirm that being committed to family increases a person's overall well-being. But our study shows for the first time that being a committed parent can improve a manager's work performance," says Ruderman, a research director at CCL. "Raising a family helps develop skills such as negotiating, compromising, conflict resolution and multitasking, which are important traits of successful managers."
The study's objectives were to determine how managers' commitments to marriage, children or both affected their life satisfaction, career satisfaction and work performance. In addition, the study looked at whether commitment to marriage and children reduced the physical and emotional resources managers could devote to work or actually expanded managers' abilities to meet the demands of their jobs. Among the 347 respondents, 221 were parents. Almost all of the respondents (91%) were married.
"Our study has important implications for employees and organizations alike," says Graves. "While many organizations have adopted family-friendly policies, most still operate under the assumption that a family focus will detract from performance. Our research suggests that this assumption is wrong. In fact, a family-focused manager may be, in fact, the leader your company should have."
The study's findings were based on respondents' personal evaluations of their life and career satisfaction. Work performance was determined by feedback from the respondents' bosses, superiors, peers, direct reports and other colleagues.
Leaders Need a Life
Life outside of work is important for both women and men and for their careers. CCL research shows why.
- Taking time for family relationships, friendships, volunteer work and personal interests has been shown to enhance on-the-job performance as well as psychological well-being. Interests, roles and responsibilities outside of work can serve as creative and supportive sources for learning how to be a more effective manager. Off-the-job experiences help people to hone interpersonal skills, to handle multiple tasks and to develop the ability to draw on relevant background and information.
- Regular exercise and effective leadership go hand-in-hand. Leaders who exercise regularly were rated significantly higher by their bosses, peers and direct reports on their leadership effectiveness than the non-exercisers. Time invested in regular exercise, even if it means spending less time at work, is correlated with higher - not lower - ratings of leadership effectiveness. It seems that a healthy lifestyle can help executives to better cope with the stresses and demands of their positions, thus ultimately increasing their leadership effectiveness.
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